The present invention relates generally to devices used for basketball practice shooting, and more particularly pertains to apparatus for disposition beneath the basketball backboard that can retrieve and return shot basketballs to a practicing player.
The prior art discloses a number of devices which facilitate basketball practice shooting, such devices comprehending surface-supportable apparatus which returns consecutively shot basketballs to a player or players standing at various locations and distances from the basketball backboard and hoop.
Among the pertinent prior art developments are the inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,697,810 (Mathison), 4,786,371 (Postol), and 4,838,549 (Woodall).
The aforementioned patents disclose surface-supportable devices for disposition beneath a basketball backboard for directing basketballs which pass through the basketball hoop to a basketball shooter. Such devices have various means to collect errant and ricocheted basketball shots and can also direct such shots to a practicing basketball player. These results are achieved in the Mathison art by a paneled enclosure, a funnel-shaped collection device, and return chute; in the Postol art by a downwardly-inclined net-carrying frame supported at its lower end by foldable legs; and in the Woodall art by a three-sided elongated paneled chute, a cradle, and an extensible ramp member.
Although each of the devices taught in the aforementioned patents are characterized by specific features generally beneficial to the avid practicing basketball player, there remains a need for a more efficient portable and collapsible basketball retrieval and return apparatus which can be relatively inexpensively manufactured and which offers certain structural and functional advantages not previously available.